Key VST CT TC
Key VST CT TC
by Monique
I started entering Team Key in VST tests early spring 2026 and we were lucky enough to be drawn into the Yankee Golden Retriever Club’s VST/TDU test on Saturday August 8, 2026. This was a night test, held on the campus of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH, with judges Ray Desmarais and Ilene Morgan and tracklayer Joanne Tobey. Although the sun had dropped below the horizon, and in the last hour the temperature had fallen significantly, it was still 81 degrees at our start, which was hot for Key.
The judges gestured to our start which was diagonally across the street in front of us, at the corner of a very large playing field. As Key approached the flag, he picked up the black leather start article, circled the flag and spat out the article. I stayed in place and gave him line as he backtracked along what must have been the tracklayer’s lead-in, and then reversed direction, going back to and passed the start flag. I fell in behind him and snagged the start article as we passed. Our first leg was 122 yards, mostly on grass and crossing numerous wide asphalt walkways, bike paths, and a small lane. Under a large tree Key searched to the left for a turn, crossing the two-lane street (and back) in two places about 10 yards apart before he committed to continuing the third time (this was an open turn to the left) on a wide concrete lane that eventually became brick and then opened out into a plaza. Key took a very long time investigating the various options, finally made his choice, and we exited the plaza to the right on a curving ramp upwards that ended at the top of a wide staircase from the plaza level to an upper level. That was the second turn.
On this third leg, still on brick, Key bonked his muzzle onto the first intermediate article (a pale red spongy floppy plastic). Continuing on in that direction while the next decision point gave him four options he immediately and confidently turned to the left. This was his best turn of the evening (and the MOT although I didn’t know that at the time). Now on fourth leg, still on brick we went passed more buildings and entered at the top end of another plaza. Here Key again spent a great deal of time figuring out where the track went next. He finally committed, going all the way through the plaza, across another street, and onto a curving asphalt path. (When I got the map I saw that this fourth leg had been straight for the first half, and then in the second half had meandered, going through grass, brick, mulch, asphalt, and concrete. Before leaving this second brick plaza he had been on brick for 281 yards!) Key turned off the path between a row of benches into a grassy rectangle area. It was very dim by then – I had turned on my headlamp – and he starting pulling hard. I let him have more line as he raced out, dove down, and dashed back to me, retreiving the second intermediate fabric article. This was just the kind of reinforcement we both needed at this point.
After praise and more water (by now I had gone through the first 24oz bottle) he continued across the grass, crossing another wide lane, some gravel, an asphalt path, and then turned again, this time to the left, continuing on grass interrupted by concrete pathways leading into recessed openings to the building on our right. After the building ended, there were “woods” on either side of us, and at this point, for the first time ever, Key “crittered” (I think) – there was something off to his left that I called him off from, then on his right that I also called him off from, and then his left again, that time into a small parking lot but when he turned left again I figured instead of tracking he was really just trying to get back to the woods and the “critters.”
Once he got back to tracking we continued in the direction we had been going, uphill, and soon entered another, much larger parking area. Key turned right almost immediately and we went quite a ways before he indicated loss of scent. I worked backwards as he circled back (but not all the way back to where we had entered the parking lot) and after water and rescenting he did the same thing again on a path 15 yards to the left of his first attempt. This time I worked my way back even less. I had been watering Key frequently all along, and after another water break, when he started up again this time he went left, not straight, and then left again. He was pulling hard, and in the headlamp’s light I saw him bonk his muzzle to the ground. When I got there and bent over, I saw a small black metal hinge, folded in half so it was 2″ x 4” – article #4 after 677 yards, 8 legs, and 52 minutes.
Key’s VST pass made him a Champion Tracker. As he was already a Dual Champion with the required championships in Conformation and Herding. this third championship in Tracking made him a Triple Champion. He’s the tenth Belgian Malinois Triple Champion in the breed’s history, and the first to have earned the third championship from Tracking (seven have their third championship from Agility, and two from Obedience). He’s the fourth GCH Triple Champion, and the seventh Triple Champion from his Turick family.
Key is now formally known BOSS GCH TC Turicks Wakiya UD TDX HSAds HXAds BCAT TT DS CGC ROM 1 HOF